Short term wastewater flooding measure planned

Dunedin (Wednesday, 4 July 2018) – The Dunedin City
Council today announced that it is investigating a
short-term measure which could be in place by next winter to
help prevent wastewater flooding in South Dunedin.

Wastewater flooding currently occurs in South Dunedin
during heavy rain, particularly in the Surrey
Street/Hillside area, when the volume of water entering the
wastewater system exceeds its capacity.

3 Waters Group
Manager Tom Dyer says the DCC is already planning to address
this issue through major projects which will see wastewater
from the Kaikorai Valley catchment area – currently piped
through South Dunedin to the Tahuna treatment plant –
piped to Green Island for treatment instead.

However, Mr
Dyer says that particular work requires a new wastewater
pipe to be constructed from Kaikorai Valley to Green Island,
as well as a major upgrade of the Green Island wastewater
treatment plant. While planning is already underway, it will
take at least eight years to fully plan, design and
construct.

“The South Dunedin community has made it very
clear to us that eight years is too long to wait,
particularly given the potential health risks that come with
wastewater flooding. We have listened to their concerns and
are looking at an interim measure which could potentially be
in place before next winter.”

Mr Dyer says the interim
measure involves diverting a large amount of wastewater away
from South Dunedin during heavy rain, by discharging it into
the Kaikorai Stream.

Mr Dyer says the DCC has had some
initial conversations with Kai Tahu and the Otago Regional
Council about the proposal, but will need to apply for a
resource consent from the ORC for it to go ahead.

Known
as a wastewater overflow, this method helps avoid wastewater
backing up and being discharged onto private property or
roads and other places where people are likely to be.

Mr
Dyer says it is important to note that wastewater overflows
are heavily diluted by the amount of water in the system,
and this particular overflow would be screened to prevent
solid matters entering the stream. Overflows already exist
on the Kaikorai Stream and in other parts of the city, but
not on the same scale as the one now being looked at.

The
current wastewater flooding in South Dunedin is unscreened
and much of the wastewater ends up making its way into the
stormwater system via mud tanks and is eventually discharged
into Otago Harbour. The new proposal would send screened
wastewater into the Kaikorai Stream and help prevent
wastewater flooding and contamination in South Dunedin.

If the proposal went ahead, sensors would be installed in
the Surrey Street/Hillside area so that the Kaikorai Valley
overflow was only activated when absolutely required to help
protect human health.

“This certainly isn’t intended
as a permanent or ideal solution. Clearly, discharging a
large amount of wastewater, albeit heavily diluted and
screened, into a stream, will have an impact on the
environment. However, we believe that the benefits to human
health and wellbeing far outweigh the environmental impacts
in this situation, until the permanent solution has been
constructed,” he says.

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